HOUSING AND HABITAT

Promote Adequate Housing
 

Sub-Saharan Africa has over 166 million urban slum dwellers, representing nearly 72 percent of the total urban population. Poverty and the lack of sustainable housing policies have led to growing informal settlements in many African countries.
 

The growing movements of people within the region, increased urbanisation, discourses on land tenure, increased reliance on market based housing solutions, mass evictions and other grave violations of human rights, point to the need for increased priority to human settlements development as a strategy for poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable economic growth.
Adequate housing is not only a matter of development and quality of life; it is also a human right. Several of the international declarations and conventions on human rights cite the right to a good living environment.  In order to achieve adequate housing, several challenges need to be addressed from local to international level.
  

The main challenges are:

Organisation: Weak or non-existent organisation among poor women and men lacking adequate shelter. Housing organisations not united towards common goals;
 

Finance: Lack of political priority and adequate state resources. Lack of savings culture and difficulty to access loans and/or housing grants;
 

Legal frameworks: Insufficient or inadequate legislation regarding cooperative housing or other people driven housing models. Difficulties to access land and insecure tenure rights;<